A fellow motorcyclist approached me while parking at a restaurant today: Looking at the front of my GTS... "Is that a SHOCK absorber?" Maybe not such a stupid question but the emphasis on "SHOCK" made me laugh.

A fellow motorcyclist approached me while parking at a restaurant today: Looking at the front of my GTS... "Is that a SHOCK absorber?" Maybe not such a stupid question but the emphasis on "SHOCK" made me laugh.

LOL. I had to take a second look myself the first time I saw that.

__________________
"But I swear, a woman's breast is the hardest rock that the Almighty ever made on this earth, and I can find no sign on it." Bear Claw Chris Lapp

I've been waiting for someone to describe their attire as the new European Space suit design. Further, to explain that one's a co-pilot on a test flight, and is taking a coffee while the pilot makes running repairs a couple of blocks away on the EU DLR Phoenix number #2 sub-orbital prototype!

On the ferry between Port Angeles, WA and Victoria, BC. Got the bike stowed away and locked up the helmet but I keep my crash green coat on. Up on deck I keep getting folks come up to me and ask questions about the boat and the trip over and where the bathrooms are. Finally, I give up telling people I am not part of the crew and start making up answers for their questions.
How many cars does this thing hold.....several thousand depending on how they are parked.
What do we do in the fog......slow down!
Where is the anchor.....under neath.
How many people work on the boat.........legally or illegally?
Where's the bathroom.......I tried to send them to the farthest one from where we were.
After all this I decided to go to the snack bar and almost got away with getting a employee discount.
Funny thing is the whole crew wore black shirts of black jackets.

On the ferry between Port Angeles, WA and Victoria, BC. Got the bike stowed away and locked up the helmet but I keep my crash green coat on. Up on deck I keep getting folks come up to me and ask questions about the boat and the trip over and where the bathrooms are. Finally, I give up telling people I am not part of the crew and start making up answers for their questions.
How many cars does this thing hold.....several thousand depending on how they are parked.
What do we do in the fog......slow down!
Where is the anchor.....under neath.
How many people work on the boat.........legally or illegally?
Where's the bathroom.......I tried to send them to the farthest one from where we were.
After all this I decided to go to the snack bar and almost got away with getting a employee discount.
Funny thing is the whole crew wore black shirts of black jackets.

Carry a small supply of informational tracts for the RMS Titanic and just hand them one.

__________________Experience IS NOT the best teacher! Someone else's experience is the best teacher.

I've only been riding for a few days (and only around my neighborhood), and I've already heard "Can I ride it?"

This thread has been cracking me up - I hope I can come up with witty responses when the time comes.

Since you're a new rider, I'm going to give you some very important advice. The answer to the above question is, "No, sorry. I don't let people ride my bikes." If they continue asking the answer becomes, "No. And quit fucking asking me. It's starting to piss me off."

There's no need to feel like a dick when you say it. The person asking is actually being a dick simply by asking. Anyone who know anything about bikes knows not to ask.

Since you're a new rider, I'm going to give you some very important advice. The answer to the above question is, "No, sorry. I don't let people ride my bikes." If they continue asking the answer becomes, "No. And quit fucking asking me. It's starting to piss me off."

There's no need to feel like a dick when you say it. The person asking is actually being a dick simply by asking. Anyone who know anything about bikes knows not to ask.

Agree.

A similar story - a friend who was like a family member and brother to me asked me to ride my nearly new ZX-7R when I got it. Now I knew he had never ridden anything like it although he did ride a street bike a little, and he was marginal on the trails with a trail bike (though we didn't tell him or argue with his impression of his skills). I felt terrible and really guilty having to deny him the chance to ride my pride and joy, but later on, in a different conversation, I realized how poor of a rider he was when he was describing how much he liked to see the front wheel/fender when riding. He was one who focused far too closely, and he proably would have wrecked my sport bike within 1 mile.

Like a pickup truck, you have to just man-up and tell people outright that it isn't something you loan out.

__________________"After reading through this thread I've come to the conclusion
that more people cruise the internet looking for reasons why
X bike won't work in Y scenario rather than actually riding
their motorcycles." --RyanR

I agree. Anything below 40° is cold enough for me to connect the heated gear. There are times when it's in the 20s and I ride to work without connecting the heated gear, because it's only a 5-minute commute, but it's still cold.

40 degrees is probably the magic number for cold on a motorcycle. At road speeds the wind chill factor can be well below freezing.

The thing that bugs me is around here it'll start at the low 30s and reach the 60s or 70s in the afternoon. You either start out underdress or end up overdressed. I get annoyed removing and attaching liners all the time so i usually deal with a cold morning commute so i can have a carefree afternoon commute.

Coming in I always get: "arent you cold?" The answer is always yes, but it doesnt matter. Heated grips make it easier though.